Keke Palmer Says Playing Chili In TLC Biopic Was ‘Nerve Wracking’

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Actress Keke Palmer was just being born when TLC, the musical trio of Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, Rozonda “Chili” Thomas and Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins first hit the music scene. Now both TLC and Palmer are 20 years old and VHI dramatizes their story in “Crazysexycool” airing on VH1 Monday night at 9 p.m.

Palmer, who has said that she and her girlfriends dressed up and played around as the group growing up, is playing Chili. Rapper Li’l Mama is Left Eye and actress/singer Drew Sidora of “The Game” is playing T-Boz. At first, the casting led to widespread derision by TLC fans, but pics and clips from the biopic started changing people’s minds when they saw how accurately the TLC era was recreated.

The movie delves into all the issues and problems that challenged the group even during their 90’s heyday where they were then the best-selling girl group of all time. (Destiny’s Child has since eclipsed them.)

From their acrimonious break with manager Pebbles, to Lopes’ s infamous torching of NFL boyfriend Andre Rison’s mansion to the group’s bankruptcy at the height of their fame, everything is covered.

“It really showed true how authentic they were as a group,” Palmer told the Tom Joyner Morning Show.“All the hard things they had to go through they needed to go through them in order to make the music that inspired a generation.”